SoylentNews

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4408

To cut down on bugs, Apple is changing how it develops its software

The initial release windows of both iOS 12 and iOS 13 saw users complaining about a plethora of bugs both major and minor. Apple has plans to mitigate this problem when iOS 14 launches next year, according to sources who spoke with Bloomberg.

People familiar with the shift told the publication that a major factor contributing to iOS 13's rough launch window was the fact that many Apple developers were making daily or weekly commits of new changes at varying levels of readiness and quality, and those features were enabled by default regardless of their readiness. This meant that test builds were often unusable for stretches of time due to one problematic feature or another, which limited the amount of time testers spent with the software.

Under the new methodology, new test builds of Apple's future operating systems will turn certain features deemed to be buggy or to cause usability issues off by default. Testers will be able to opt-in on a feature-by-feature basis in many cases, reducing the likelihood that they will be working with "unlivable" builds.

Bloomberg's sources provided some insight about how Apple assesses the reliability and state of its own software features, as well.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

A 'no-brainer Nobel Prize': Hungarian scientists may have found a fifth force of nature

Scientists at the Institute for Nuclear Research at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Atomki) have posted findings showing what could be an example of that fifth force at work.

The scientists were closely watching how an excited helium atom emitted light as it decayed. The particles split at an unusual angle -- 115 degrees -- which couldn't be explained by known physics.

The study's lead scientist, Attila Krasznahorkay, told CNN that this was the second time his team had detected a new particle, which they call X17, because they calculated its mass at 17 megaelectronvolts. "X17 could be a particle, which connects our visible world with the dark matter," he said in an email.

Jonathan Feng, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California at Irvine told CNN he's been following the Hungarian team's work for years, and believes its research is shaping up to be a game changer. If these results can be replicated, "this would be a no-brainer Nobel Prize," he said.

X17 particle.

Also at ScienceAlert and Popular Mechanics.

2016: Observation of Anomalous Internal Pair Creation in ⁸Be: A Possible Indication of a Light, Neutral Boson (open, DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.042501) (DX)

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The infernal landscape of Dallol, located in the Ethiopian depression of Danakil, extends over a volcanic crater full of salt, where toxic gases emanate and water boils in the midst of intense hydrothermal activity. It is one of the most torrid environments on Earth. There, daily temperatures in winter can exceed 45 degrees Celsius[113 F] and there are abundant hypersaline and hyperacid pools with pH values that are even negative.

A recent study, published this year, reports that certain microorganisms can develop in this multi-extreme environment (simultaneously very hot, saline and acid), which has led its authors to present this place as an example of the limits that life can support, and even to propose it as a terrestrial analogue of early Mars.

However, a French-Spanish team of scientists led by biologist Purificación Lopez Garcia of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) has now published an article in Nature Ecology & Evolution that concludes otherwise. According to these researchers, there is no life in Dallol's multi-extreme ponds.

"After analyzing many more samples than in previous works, with adequate controls so as not to contaminate them and a well-calibrated methodology, we have verified that there's no microbial life in these salty, hot and hyperacid pools or in the adjacent magnesium-rich brine lakes," says López García.

We had two Soylentils write in with news about Chinese spy operations and a defection in Australia.

Australia Investigating Alleged Chinese Plot to Install "Spy MP"

takyon writes:

Australia investigates alleged Chinese plot to install spy MP

Australian intelligence officials have confirmed they are investigating allegations of a plot to plant a Chinese spy in the nation's parliament. The allegations - first aired by local network Nine - assert that a suspected Chinese espionage ring approached a Chinese-Australian man to run as an MP.

[...] On Sunday, Nine's 60 Minutes programme reported that suspected Chinese agents approached a luxury car dealer, Nick Zhao, ahead of Australia's general election - which took place in May. They allegedly offered him A$1m (£520,000; $680,000) to fund his run for a Melbourne seat as a candidate for the ruling Liberal Party, of which Mr Zhao was already a member.

Mr Zhao gave information about the alleged approach to the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) last year, Nine reported. He was found dead in a hotel room in Melbourne in March. His death has prompted a coroner's inquiry.

Nine has also reported that a man claiming to be a Chinese spy has applied for asylum in Australia, in an unrelated case.

Chinese Spy Decided to Defect to Australia

Runaway1956 writes:

Chinese spy Wang Liqiang alleges Beijing ordered overseas murders, including in Australia.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-23/chinese-spy-wang-liqiang-seeks-political-asylum-australia-report/11732174

A man claiming to have worked as a secret Chinese operative for five years says Beijing has directed overseas assassinations, including on Australian soil.

Government sources have confirmed to the ABC[*] Wang "William" Liqiang has detailed the sensational allegations as he seeks political asylum.

Nine Newspapers have reported Mr Wang is in hiding in Sydney after recently providing a sworn statement to Australia's domestic spy agency ASIO outlining Beijing's covert operations.

One senior official, speaking to the ABC on the condition of anonymity, said the challenge for security agencies was to now "separate fact from fiction" while assessing Mr Wang's disclosures.

In the statement Mr Wang provided ASIO[**] last month, he reportedly states: "I have been personally involved and participated in a series of espionage activities".

According to Nine Newspapers, Mr Wang has provided new details about the kidnapping of five booksellers who specialised in works critical of Chinese leaders based in Hong Kong, starting in 2015, and their rendition to mainland China.

He is also reported to have said spies from Beijing were infiltrating Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement, influencing Taiwan's elections and "operating with impunity in Australia", according to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

upstart writes in with a submission, via IRC, for fnord666.

Google Will Award $1M-Plus to People Who Can Hack Titan M Security Chip

The company expanded its Android bug bounty program as one of several recent moves to ramp up mobile security.

Google is willing to award up to $1.5 million to hackers who can successfully hack its Titan M security chip on the company’s Pixel devices as part of an expansion of its Android bug-bounty program unveiled this week.

The company revealed increased payouts to its Android Security Rewards in a blog post Thursday. Google already has paid out more than $4 million in 1,800 reports to those who’ve identified vulnerabilities on the platform, it said.

The expansion of the program focuses mainly on Google’s own technology rather than the greater ecosystem, with the company offering a significant prize for hackers to test the security of its Titan security chip on forthcoming versions of Android.

“We are introducing a top prize of $1 million for a full chain remote code execution exploit with persistence which compromises the Titan M secure element on Pixel devices,” Jessica Lin from the Android Security Team wrote in the post. “Additionally, we will be launching a specific program offering a 50% bonus for exploits found on specific developer preview versions of Android, meaning our top prize is now $1.5 million.”

Google introduced Titan M in its Pixel 3 smartphone released last year. The chip adds deep, device-level protection to separate the most sensitive data stored on the Pixel from its main processor, which can protect it from certain types of attacks.

[...] In addition to sweetening the deal for white-hat hackers to help it improve Titan M, Google also has expanded bug-bounty rewards in other critical device security areas. These include threats involving data exfiltration and lockscreen bypass, according to the post. Depending on the exploit category, people now can earn up to $500,000 for reporting bugs.

A comprehensive list of the changes is available on the Android Security Rewards Program Rules website.

Original Submission

martyb writes:

Brutal stomach bug erupts in Colorado, closing down an entire school district

A violent stomach bug has exploded in Colorado's Mesa County Valley School District 51, leading to the swift shutdown of the entire district, which includes 46 schools and programs that serve more than 22,000 students.

The outbreak first struck a high school, which was closed down Thursday, November 14. In the subsequent days, the outbreak took out five other schools and led to more than 5,000 absences in others (due to either illness or fear of the outbreak). On Wednesday, November 20, district officials made the bold decision to close down the entire district through the Thanksgiving holiday.

Health officials have not officially identified the pathogen causing the outbreak but suspect it is norovirus—a highly contagious germ that causes vomiting and diarrhea, typically for one to three days. Norovirus is the leading cause of such stomach illnesses in the US.

"The decision to close is the right move," Mesa County Public Health Executive Director Jeff Kuhr said in a statement. "Past experience with these types of viruses tell us having a period of time away from close person-to-person contact can be instrumental in these illnesses running their course."

[...] Kuhr told The New York Times that many sick students had been vomiting on the floors of classrooms and hallways, unable to make it to trash cans or bathrooms in time.

[...] Norovirus victims can spew billions of infectious viral particles in their vomit and feces. Just a few can cause a new infection. Kuhr estimated that everything within a 25-foot radius of a puking was likely contaminated.

The Associated Press reported that some school custodians also fell ill, slowing the disinfection process.

Having personally suffered through a bout of this, I can attest to how nasty it is.

upstart writes in with a submission, via IRC, for SoyCow4408.

Google bans microtargeting and "false claims" in political ads

The country's largest digital advertising platform is trying to take a stand heading into the 2020 election this week, as it both limits the targeting of political ads and warns would-be political advertisers about making false claims.

On Wednesday, Google made an announcement "clarifying" its advertising policy for political ads, making it clear that outright lies are theoretically not welcome. "Whether you're running for office or selling office furniture, we apply the same ads policies to everyone; there are no carve-outs," the company said, adding:

It's against our policies for any advertiser to make a false claim—whether it's a claim about the price of a chair or a claim that you can vote by text message, that election day is postponed, or that a candidate has died.

To make this more explicit, we're clarifying our ads policies and adding examples to show how our policies prohibit things like "deep fakes" (doctored and manipulated media), misleading claims about the census process, and ads or destinations making demonstrably false claims that could significantly undermine participation or trust in an electoral or democratic process.

That said, the company adds, they can't judge "every political claim, counterclaim, and insinuation," so they expect the number of ads they block to be low.

Those ads will also have to be aimed at a comparatively broad segment of the population, Google said, to the dismay of campaigns on both the left and the right. While the company will allow political ads to be targeted to users based on age, gender, and postal code, it will not allow more narrow "microtargeting" to highly segmented, granular audiences such as those based on public voter records or political affiliation.

Back to you, Facebook

Original Submission

upstart writes in with a submission, via IRC, for chromas.

Global 5G deal poses significant threat to weather forecast accuracy, experts warn

A long-awaited international deal governing how the world's technology companies should roll out 5G technology poses serious risks to weather forecast accuracy, according to data from federal agencies and the World Meteorological Organization.

Negotiators from around the world announced a deal Friday at a meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for how to roll out 5G technology that operates using specific radio frequency bands.

Studies completed before the negotiations by U.S. government agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA and the Navy had warned that 5G equipment operating in the 24-gigahertz frequency band could interfere with transmissions from polar-orbiting satellites used to gather weather data. This could make forecasts much less reliable, the reports found.

Specifically, these highly technical analyses concluded that if deployed widely and without adequate constraints, telecommunications equipment operating in the 24 GHz frequency band would bleed into the frequencies that NOAA and NASA satellite sensors also use to sense the presence and properties of water vapor in the atmosphere, significantly interfering with the collection and transmission of critical weather data.

The NOAA report, for example, warned of a potential loss of 77.4 percent of data coming from microwave sounders mounted on the agency's polar-orbiting satellites.

The agency's microwave sounders operate at a frequency of 23.6 to 24 GHz, which is close to the frequency that the Federal Communications Commission auctioned off the use of for about $2 billion beginning this past March.

The key concerns about 5G interference focus on what are known as baseline interference limits, often referred to as out-of-band emission limits.

Previously:
Hurricane Tracking Technology is About to Regress 30 Years
Ajit Pai Says NOAA and NASA Are Wrong About 5G Harming Weather Forecasts

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Spacewalking astronauts ventured out Friday for the second week in a row to repair a cosmic ray detector, this time actually cutting into the $2 billion instrument.

The International Space Station's Luca Parmitano sliced through eight stainless steel tubes, using hardware store-type bolt cutters. That set the stage to install new coolant pumps during the third spacewalk on Dec. 2.

Parmitano had to sever the tubes in a specific order and notified Mission Control each time before cutting. His spacewalking partner, Andrew Morgan, backstopped everything.

NASA likened the repair work to heart bypass surgery. At least four spacewalks are needed to fix the spectrometer, on the hunt for elusive dark matter and antimatter for 8 ½ years. Without a new cooling system, the experiment—led by a Nobel laureate—would end.

[...]The 7 ½-ton (6,800-kilogram) spectrometer rode to the space station during shuttle Endeavour's final mission in 2011. If successful, the repairs will keep the device working throughout the life of the station, or another five to 10 years.

Original Submission

upstart writes in with a submission, via IRC, for Runaway1956.

In defense of Kodak and its 'failure' to innovate:

Kodak has been the ultimate bogeyman of MBA programs. You've heard the story. The company held an unassailable position in one the world's largest markets. It had a deep, lasting brand with consumers and professionals along with a high-margin recurring revenue stream.

But it failed to fully understand the impact of emerging technologies. It couldn't get its 100+ year-old self to pivot in time. It didn't cross the chasm and cannonballed deep into the abyss.

You could build a small mountain out of the airport books that regurgitate this horror story.

It's also not exactly true. With established companies facing competition and upstarts claiming to have the upper hand through disruption, now is a good time to re-examine the myth:

1. Kodak faced a transition few, if any, companies could have made
2. But it could have been a brand!
3. But it didn't invest in innovation!
4. But now there's nothing left!

[Note - This story comes from TheNextWeb's Podium section which is described as "Opinion, advice, and analysis by the TNW community". -- Ed.]

Original Submission

upstart writes in with a submission, via IRC, for SoyCow4408.

More than 1 million T-Mobile customers exposed by breach – TechCrunch:

T-Mobile has confirmed a data breach affecting more than a million of its customers, whose personal data (but no financial or password data) was exposed to a malicious actor. The company alerted the affected customers but did not provide many details in its official account of the hack.

The company said in its disclosure to affected users that its security team had shut down “malicious, unauthorized access” to prepaid data customers. The data exposed appears to have been:

• Name
• Billing address
• Phone number
• Account number
• Rate, plan and calling features (such as paying for international calls)

The latter data is considered “customer proprietary network information” and under telecoms regulations they are required to notify customers if it is leaked. The implication seems to be that they might not have done so otherwise. Of course some hacks, even hacks of historic magnitude, go undisclosed sometimes for years.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

Cerebras Unveils First Installation of Its AI Supercomputer at Argonne National Labs

At Supercomputing 2019 in Denver, Colo., Cerebras Systems unveiled the computer powered by the world's biggest chip. Cerebras says the computer, the CS-1, has the equivalent machine learning capabilities of hundreds of racks worth of GPU-based computers consuming hundreds of kilowatts, but it takes up only one-third of a standard rack and consumes about 17 kW. Argonne National Labs, future home of what's expected to be the United States' first exascale supercomputer, says it has already deployed a CS-1. Argonne is one of two announced U.S. National Laboratories customers for Cerebras, the other being Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The system "is the fastest AI computer," says CEO and cofounder Andrew Feldman. He compared it with Google's TPU clusters (the 2nd of three generations of that company's AI computers), noting that one of those "takes 10 racks and over 100 kilowatts to deliver a third of the performance of a single [CS-1] box."

The CS-1 is designed to speed the training of novel and large neural networks, a process that can take weeks or longer. Powered by a 400,000-core, 1-trillion-transistor wafer-scale processor chip, the CS-1 should collapse that task to minutes or even seconds. However, Cerebras did not provide data showing this performance in terms of standard AI benchmarks such as the new MLPerf standards. Instead it has been wooing potential customers by having them train their own neural network models on machines at Cerebras.

[...] The CS-1's first application is in predicting cancer drug response as part of a U.S. Department of Energy and National Cancer Institute collaboration. It is also being used to help understand the behavior of colliding black holes and the gravitational waves they produce. A previous instance of that problem required 1024 out of 4392 nodes of the Theta supercomputer.

Also at TechCrunch, VentureBeat, and Wccftech.

Previously: Cerebras "Wafer Scale Engine" Has 1.2 Trillion Transistors, 400,000 Cores

Original Submission

upstart writes in with a submission, via IRC, for SoyCow4408.

Women are more likely than men to say 'please' to their smart speaker:

Here's an interesting stat from the Pew Research Center: more than half of smart speaker owners in the US (54 percent) report saying "please" at least occasionally to their AI assistants, with one-in-five (19 percent) saying please frequently. Curiously, the question of AI politeness also breaks down along gender lines, with 62 percent of women reporting that they say "please" at least sometimes, versus 45 percent for men.

Why that might be?

One possible answer is that men are generally ruder to women, and this latter category now includes AI assistants coded as female. Experts have long noted that the design choices for AI bots could have misogynist effects by reinforcing gender stereotypes. "Because the speech of most voice assistants is female, it sends a signal that women are ... docile and eager-to-please helper," a report from the UN noted earlier this year.

It could also be that men just have different attitudes to technology. Culturally speaking, tech is coded as practical and manly, and contrasted with "feminine" disciplines. Studies show men feel more comfortable with technology, and express more interest in "mastering" it as a tool. These biases could be affecting the issue of politeness to AI.

Sadly, Pew didn't ask respondents why they felt they had to say please or not to these bots, so we can only speculate on the topic. But the broader issue is certainly an interesting one: do you need to be polite to AI assistants?

Original Submission

Today's (Sunday) Buffalo News has a nice story about Niagara Glen, https://buffalonews.com/2019/11/23/in-canadas-niagara-glen-an-inspiring-view-of-a-familiar-river/

If you are visiting Niagara Falls, as a local I highly recommend this hike down into the gorge (North of the Falls). It's free, but you do have to climb down 80 steps...

Hiking into Canada's Niagara Glen, as they call it, is a vastly different experience than hiking the American Devil's Hole trail. While the one New York trail follows an old railroad bed along the narrow base of the gorge for a loop of about 2 miles, Canadians can hike nine trails that meander for nearly 4 miles through their much wider river terrace.

And on these trails, you encounter a maze of boulders the size of cottages, centuries-old trees nearly as tall as Niagara Falls, deep potholes formed by a much younger Niagara River, rock shelters that stir the imagination and vistas that demonstrate the power and beauty of the river.

[...] These boulders cracked off from the top of the cliff thousands of years ago as the river cut its way through the escarpment. Many of the formations have been given names, like Fat Man's Misery, Tangerine Squeeze and Balancing Rocks.

[...] Bruce Kershner, the forest ecologist from the University at Buffalo, studied this 60-acre hardwood forest (the tallest in Ontario) and the nearby 10-acre cedar zone, shortly before his death in 2007. Among his discoveries:

• Canada's tallest tulip tree, at 134 feet (Niagara Falls is 167 feet) and 225 years old
• Canada's tallest Chinkapin Oak, 100 feet and 150 years old
• A black cherry, 150 feet and 200 years old
• Hop Hornbeam (Ironwood), 15-inch diameter, 300 years old

And those are the young ones in this glen's forest. The white cedar is gramps.

"Northern white cedar (20-32 inch diameter) up to 500 years old, possibly older!" Kercschner wrote for his study. "They grow in fantastic shapes on boulders and cliffs in the glen ... The old growth northern white cedars of the Niagara Gorge can safely be called a nationally significant discovery. Hundreds of ultra-ancient cedars populate Canada's side of the Niagara Gorge."

[...] There are two unfortunate distractions, though. This is an international tourist destination, and with that comes the sounds of helicopters above and the jet boats roaring up the river to Devil's Hole. These rides may be thrilling for the tourists, but they're a noisy obscenity to those who prefer the natural beauty of the gorge.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

ETH scientists have developed a special protective membrane made of cellulose that significantly reduces the build-up of fibrotic tissue around cardiac pacemaker implants, as reported in the current issue of the journal Biomaterials. Their development could greatly simplify surgical procedures for patients with cardiac pacemakers.

"Every pacemaker has to be replaced at some point. When this time comes, typically after about five years when the device's battery expires, the patient has to undergo surgery," explains Aldo Ferrari, Senior Scientist in ETH Professor Dimos Poulikakos's group and at Empa. "If too much fibrotic tissue has formed around the pacemaker, it complicates the procedure," he explains. In such cases, the surgeon has to cut into and remove this excess tissue. Not only does that prolong the operation, it also increases the risk of complications such as infection.

To overcome this issue, Ferrari and his colleagues at ETH Zurich spent the last few years developing a membrane with a special surface structure that is less conducive to the growth of fibrotic tissue than the smooth metal surface of pacemakers. This membrane has now been patented and Ferrari is working with fellow researchers at the Wyss Zurich research center, the University of Zurich and the German Center of Cardiovascular Research in Berlin to make it market-ready for use in patients.

Journal Reference:

Francesco Robotti, Ita Sterner, Simone Bottan, Josep M. Monné Rodríguez, Giovanni Pellegrini, Tanja Schmidt, Volkmar Falk, Dimos Poulikakos, Aldo Ferrari, Christoph Starck. Microengineered biosynthesized cellulose as anti-fibrotic in vivo protection for cardiac implantable electronic devices. Biomaterials, 2020; 229: 119583 DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2019.119583

Original Submission